Raspberry

Backlog 6/10

I got this one in my swap with darby, thank you! Last weekend I went on a craaazy spree realizing that I could ice any tea I had…. I know that seems stupid but I just don’t know why I never made that connection.

So, I made some of this up double strength and then poured it over ice. This one is…. Okay. I found that I mostly tasted black tea so I added some sugar and it tasted the same so I added a little more and then all I could taste was fake raspberry :( Sigh. I have another raspberry black from brandy and I’m gonna try that one soon to see how it compares.

ADAGIO RASPBERRY I EXPECTED MORE FROM YOU!!!!

This tea is… disappointing. The bf asked for “something raspberry” tonight and this ended up being what we settled on: I remember it being so-so the first time I tried it, but tea is always worth a second cup! However, it didn’t really end up much better this time. It’s very fake raspberry. Not in a bad, icky, artificial way, it just tastes like raspberry hard candy rather than fresh fruit or a jammy quality (both of which I’d find acceptable). This isn’t a bad tea, it’s just not to my taste—I usually end up mixing it with other things like Adagio’s cream to cut some of that candy quality. The weird thing is their other raspberry tea I have (Ripe for Romance) isn’t fake raspberry at all and more jammy/ripe fruit-y. I wonder why a company would use two different raspberry flavors instead of just, you know, the good one?

This is pretty tart. It isn’t as good as I thought it would be on its own. Thankfully I plan to pair it with Adagio’s cream and ceylon Sonata teas down the road! We’re having a Whovian Christmas gathering at the tea shop I used to sell my teas in and I said I would mix something up for the event. :) Excited for this, even if not so excited for this one on its own.

I have had this tea before, but never posted my review of it…
Here’s my first impression:

In the bag it smelled slightly medicinal, as raspberry sometimes can. Once brewed however the smell sweetened up and was quite enticing. The raspberry flavor is more subtle than I would have liked, and the medicinal quality was a bit off-putting. It was pretty disappointing considering I love raspberries so much.

I just revisited this tea, as my husband bought me a big jar of raspberry jam. I’ve been looking at my tea box longingly, just waiting to try this tea out with a big scoop of raspberry jam in the cup. Since my nose was a bit stuffed up & I didn’t want to try out any of the delicate white tea samples that Stacy so generously sent me with my sense of smell compromised. So raspberry tea it is.

Adding the jam in this tea really made a HUGE difference. It actually tastes like raspberries this time around. It’s just as tasty as it cools down, too. Now I can actually drink this tea and not just stare at it taking up space in my tea box. I wish the tea tasted this good without the need for jam, but I’ll take it :)

This is a little too tart to have a true raspberry flavor; I was hoping for something a bit thicker and more jammy, something with the sweetness of a real red raspberry. It’s not a fake raspberry taste, but it’s not great, either. I’d like to try combining this with Adagio’s Cream and see what happens.

If that doesn’t work, this is going in the “to swap” pile.

By the way, Cofftea, I have a running list going of whole or near-whole 1 oz Adagio samples I’d like to swap – I’ll type up and send tonight!

Thank you to Darby for sending me this one in a trade!

Steeping: It smells like candied raspberries. I prepared it black and only steeped it for 3 minutes.

First sip: I’m getting a pleasant black tea flavor but I can only smell the raspberry, I can’t taste it.

Second Sip: I added a generous pinch of rock sugar. I;m getting a very faint raspberry flavor, but not enough to satisfy my love for raspberries.

Thoughts: It was an average black tea for me. Pleasant tasting, but underwhelming because I was hoping for a stronger raspberry flavor. I’ll enjoy drinking the rest of this, I’m going to use it as an iced tea. I don’t think I would restock it at this point.

My New Tea Shipment is HERE! YAY! I randomly chose – out of the ones I ordered – to sip first – and here it is! It’s the Raspberry Flavored Black. At first sniff this tea reminds me of Raspberry chocolate almost. It seems to steep quickly and the aroma lingers. The coloring is that of a regular black tea. The taste is a medium flavored black tea with slight raspberry flavors throughout. I know I will enjoy this tea most mornings! First sample – a success!

Thanks to darby for this tea! Got it recently in a swap, and I was excited to try it.

The loose leaf smells very much like raspberry, but the full spectrum of the raspberry flavor doesn’t really come out in the brew. Most of what I get is a tart sensation laid over some decent quality black tea. Perhaps I needed to sweeten it more… I will try that next time I make this. Not saying I like it, not saying I don’t, just reserving judgment. :)

Last night I was up late at a company dinner. It was a ceremony were they gave out prizes to the best companies in Ecuador (it is called EKOS awards if you are interested…). It was great to see everyone so happy and proud of what we had achieved this year. Unfortunately, it was really really long… By the time I got home all I wanted to do was get in bed and didn’t get a chance to review this tea. So, when I woke up this morning I made myself another cup and finally am going to write about it!

I am actually glad I waited on it, considering that this second cup I like significantly more than the first one I had! I guess something about the strong black tea flavor is just more enjoyable in the morning after a long night…

The smell of the dry tea is majorly black tea with a hint of raspberry jello. All in all not bad. There were a few dry green leaves in the tea which made it prettier than just plain flavored black tea.

I used 2 teaspoons for 16oz of boiling water, 3 minute steep (once again avoiding the bitterness that a longer steep gets out of Adagio’s black teas) and a teaspoon of brown sugar. As it steeped tea raspberry became more prominent. The cup was dark and rich. The smell reminded me of the filling of raspberry filled chocolates!

The taste was a lot of black tea with a hint of artificial raspberry flavor. It did not remind me of the real fruit at all. There was no tartness, which for me automatically made the flavor a bit artificial. But, artificial raspberry isn’t necessarily bad! I really really like raspberry filled chocolates and the flavor also reminded me of it! Maybe this tea would be great mixed with some chocolate tea!

I don’t think I will buy this again, but I will enjoy what I have left of it!

Bought this solely for iced tea. It smells amazing, but I got a real bitter taste with my first sip… the same problem I had with the Adagio Vanilla. Seems the flavored teas might be a bit temperamental.

I seem to be doing a lot of cold steeping lately. But there’s just something so awesome about tossing a thermos in the fridge and crawling out of bed at the crack of dawn and not have to actually do anything. Of course, this crack of dawn I forgot half of my tea here when I left for work so blerg (Fiance was nice enough to put it in the fridge for me when he got up later though!). Oh well. Half a thermos of tea now!

I really do actually think is a pretty decent raspberry tea. The raspberry flavor is natural and raspberry-y. Kind of a fresh picked, maybe a little underripe, thiing. It’s definitely not overly sweet raspberry flavor, or jammy, but it’s fresh tasting and the black tea base is far smoother when cold steeped. This would also pair really well with something like Adagio’s Cream tea to make a pretty decent dessert tea. I think that’ll go in my to-try bucket.

As an aside, I feel really snooty drinking tea while snacking on Wensleydale with figs. But they pair really really well!

I’m a sucker for raspberry. I usually get dissapointed by the very artificial flavor taste in fruity teas, but this was a little light or should I say, sutil. A good one but will continue the quest for the perfect raspberry flavor.

Even the scent when sniffing up close is a little too much for me. Raspberry tea is a little tart and syrupy in flavour and the aroma is quite overwhelming. My younger sister loves the tea, but based on it’s taste, I’d say its more accustomed to a child’s palette and lacks the sophisticated flavours I look for in tea. From a distance, the smell of the tea however is very drawing and soothing, I’d love to have a cup just sitting across the room when I’m sick, because it’s very relaxing, but when I get within a foot of the tea it punches me in the face with a distasteful smell before I even get it into my mouth, and when I do, I wouldn’t necessarily say there’s a party in my mouth; more like my taste buds are packing up and moving out

Leaves smell very sweet and fruity. Very nice.
The colour strikes me a kind of boring light golden brown. It doesn’t look bad, it just looks very average.
It doesn’t taste very fruity. I can find the raspberry, but it’s rather subtle and not enormously sweet. I like that, and I think it might benefit from a little sugar. I’ll have to experiment wtih that.